


We Were Mint to Be

by PandaPaladin



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: (I like punny titles okay), Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/F, Fluff, Kara works at an ice cream shop, Supercorp now served with ice cream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-25 21:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20731244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PandaPaladin/pseuds/PandaPaladin
Summary: The door to the ice cream parlor jingled to signify the arrival of a new customer. Kara Danvers looked up from her cramped work area, wishing that there was a way she could catch the eye of a certain Luthor, who ordered a modest scoop of mint chocolate every Wednesday morning.





	We Were Mint to Be

**Author's Note:**

> If you've never tried Superman ice cream (they call it super kid where I'm from), you just GOTTA. It's heaven on Earth and is the catalyst that possessed me to write this.

Kara’s arm strained as she scraped out a hefty scoop of strawberry ice cream. Balled up in her silver spoon, she plopped it nicely on top of a waffle cone. She smiled as she handed it to the teenager across the counter. An exchange of cash and change later, Kara found herself rolling her shoulder with a little groan. 

The ice cream parlor was certainly busy today. It was a late Wednesday afternoon, when kids from the school across the street were finally being let out. Many of them loved to frequent the Danvers Local Ice Cream Shop after school. Which, in retrospect, was a name too long to say all the time, so the locals have begun to affectionately call them the Supergirl, named after their famously invented ice cream flavour: a swirl of banana, blueberry, and strawberry flavors that made every kid’s mouth water.

(Kara has never been more proud of herself for inventing it than literally anything else in her life). 

Beside her, Winn was whistling a melodic tune while he worked the cash register. He waved a couple closer to him for them to make their order, his fingers drumming against the sides of the gray cash register. Nia was loudly singing along to the song the kids were blasting out on their local radio station, twirling around as she wiped off dirty spoons. Brainy, his blessed quiet self, was counting numbers on a stool.

In hindsight, today was a regular Wednesday morning with too many chattering customers and too many dripping ice creams. 

Except it was _ Wednesday. _

As if someone from above was granting her a miracle, the door to their ice cream parlor jingled with the tune of their bells, sounds of the streets pouring in through the cracks of the glass. 

When Kara looked up, all of the ache in her biceps miraculously disappeared. She flexed them subconsciously, placing her hands on her hips and averting her gaze away from the woman who had just walked in. Instead she paid attention to the teenaged boy tapping the glass, squinting at a bucket of moose tracks ice cream. 

She didn’t look up when the woman was finally next in line. She _ still _refused to look up when a burgundy color caught the corner of her eye until it filled half of her vision. There was a tap on the glass. Then two.

Kara took a deep breath and looked up, flashing her customer service smile at the woman across from her, separated by the assortments of ice cream buckets between them. She tried not to think about the fact that her smile became twice as genuine when she saw green. She also tried not to acknowledge that Winn was staring holes into the side of her face. 

“Hi!” she said happily. It sounded a bit like a squeak. “Welcome to the Danvers Local Ice Cream— you know what? You’ve been here a dozen times before, you get it.”

Lena, wonderfully brilliant _ Lena _Luthor, laughed cheerfully at her words. 

She stuck out like a sore thumb the first couple of times she came here. With her expensive loafers and silky suits and even silkier dresses, how could she not? But after a couple of weeks, customers looked over at her like another face in the crowd, and every employee in the shop knew her order by heart. Which included Kara.

“Medium scoop of mint chocolate?” Kara provided with a kind smile. She pressed her palms against the small counter to lean closer. She ignored the wild erratic beat in her heart. 

“Always,” Lena said. She already had a crisp five dollar bill in her hand, outstretched to Kara over the curve of the glass.

Kara took it and put it in the pocket of her apron. And upon request from long ago, Lena took no change. And upon tradition, Lena clicked her tongue at the mostly empty tip jar beside Winn’s register, riddled by quarters and crumpled dollar bills, and stuffed neatly folded bills of her own inside. She didn’t even blink to see what number was printed neatly on her money. 

A scoop of ice cream in a paper bowl later, Kara plucked a neon blue spoon from her can and served the dessert to her favorite customer with a smile.

“God, have I ever told you that you’re my favorite person in the entire world?” Lena moaned. She licked the remains of mint ice cream from her lips, her spoon delved back into her cup for more. Customers were curving around her, since they were both off to the side of the serving station. Nia, without question, took to serving the other kids for her. Kara already knew that she deserved a subtle high five under the counter once Lena left.

“You tell me that every week,” Kara teased, closing the lid over the mint chocolate ice cream, “and it’s always the highlight of my day, if I’m being honest.”

“Are all ice cream servers this suave?”

“If they’re serving _ your _ice cream? Oh, definitely,” Kara said enthusiastically, shaking her head up and down like an energetic bunny.

Lena laughed. She jabbed her ice cream once more. “Well, I’m glad to see my tips are going towards someone as charming as you,” she said cheekily. “I have to run. See you next Wednesday?”

“Be there or be square,” Kara declared.

With a parting smile and a compliment over Kara’s ice cream, Lena left with a jingle of the door. 

Kara watched her black Sedan pull out of the side of the road and into the busy street from the corner of her eye. She served a young lady with a baby as she did, scooping two large blobs of Supergirl ice cream into a waffle bowl. The baby gurgled when she handed it over. 

Eight more customers and an aching right bicep later, Kara walked over to the cramped break room and sat down heavily on a metal chair. It scraped against the linoleum with a painful screech, though Kara was too tired to care. She huffed her hair out of her face and slouched, groaning up into fluorescent lights.

“From a scale of fresh nap to Popeyes, how’s your arm feeling?” Alex asked her, amusement oozing into her voice. She was sitting across from Kara with their shared mini table, a hot dog glazed with relish clamped in her hands. 

“Popeyes with a side of triple spinach,” Kara said, voice hoarse and breathless. She groaned and popped a joint back into a socket, sitting up straighter in her uncomfortable chair. She rolled her shoulder as she added, “Never make do another double shift again. I’d rather scrub the floor with a toothbrush.”

Alex scoffed. “I didn’t even ask you to. _ You _ were the one who offered to take Vasquez’s shift this morning.” 

“Yeah, but you let me,” Kara quipped.

Alex only rolled her eyes. “You’ll make it, believe it or not.”

“Barely!”

“You are _ such _a drama queen.” Alex kicked her from underneath the table. 

Kara kicked her right back, snorting when her sister yelped and got a chin full of relish. “Makes you wonder who I got it from.”

They talked back and forth about their days, Alex sometimes cutting in with a big sister chide about Kara’s questionable work ethics. Sometimes the bell near the door would jingle to pour in the chatter of friends or family, and the pop radio in the corner helped ease the sisters into more cursory moods. 

All the while, she couldn’t stop thinking about Lena Luthor and her fixation with chocolate mint ice cream.

They weren’t even close enough to be friends, really. Every Wednesday, Kara pumped herself up in the mirror by assuring to herself that _ today _ was _ the _day she asked her biggest customer crush for her phone number. And every Wednesday, like clockwork, Kara and Lena would exchange lovely conversation before Lena had to sprint back to her Sedan. 

With the few conversations they held, Kara already felt like she would defend this woman to the ends of the Earth. She was smart, cunning, strikingly beautiful, and most of all, she never ordered the Supergirl ice cream. 

It was an odd thing to feel curious about, considering that their daily customer count was only ever a tiny slice of the city, but the curiosity was there. Supergirl ice cream was a National City staple, a delicacy that had been on several newspapers and trending lists for several years. But Lena came in every week, on hump day, and her perusing eyes never once settled on the colorful concoction set out in the middle of the store. 

Eventually, Alex realized that her story about the broken handle in her new motorcycle wasn’t as interesting as she thought it was. Kara kept nodding her head mindlessly to whatever Alex said, and her sister dropped any other conversation to give Kara time to daydream in her own bubble. 

Faintly, she could hear Winn cracking a pun with a girl at the register. She was laughing politely, and Kara automatically felt bad for her. Wishing her sister farewell with a pound on the back that made Alex complain even louder, Kara quickly tied her apron back on and sprinted to the cash register.

“Hey!” She flashed a big smile at the young girl. She was still standing in front of Winn, shifting her feet nervously with no ice cream in her hand. Kara wanted to change that. “Sorry, it’s been busy all day. Can I help you?”

“Kara, I got it— ow!” Winn rubbed his side with a wince. “Right, fine fine fine. I’ll back off.”

“The kid behind her needs to pay for his waffle cone,” she said to him. She clapped him on the back and motioned for the girl to step aside. “Thanks, Winn.”

Muttering under his breath about the “importance of ice cream puns, _ jeez_,'' Winn waved her off. Kara put her hands on her hips and smiled at the little brunette. “So, what can I get you?”

“Do you still sell Supergirl ice cream?” the girl asked. 

Kara fought back a grin. “The day this place runs out of Supergirl ice cream will be the day I start flying and shoot lasers out of my eyes. Cone, sprinkled cone, bowl, or waffle taco?”

“You serve waffle tacos?” The excitement in her voice made Kara laugh. She dropped her hands from her hips and pointed directly above her, where she knew a waffle taco was being proudly presented in a neon pink stand. 

“The very best in National City,” Kara promised. “I can either get you a small one or a big one. The big one’s only fourteen dollars.”

The girl was almost bouncing on her feet. She was leaning on the glass with her hands pressed neatly on it. Kara couldn’t bring herself to tell her to take her hands off. “Two big waffle tacos of Supergirl ice cream then.”

Before Kara could start spooning out her order, a woman called, “Ruby! Ruby, darling, don’t run off like that!”

To her immense confusion and baffled delight, a burgundy suit and a neat hair bun was back into Kara’s view. Lena had her hand pressed on Ruby’s back, and the girl was looking up at her with a sulking look. 

“Sorry,” Ruby apologized. She moved her hands away from the glass. “I got really excited.”

“I know,” Lena said gently. She rubbed Ruby’s back and smiled down at her, before her eyes flickered back up to Kara’s wide-eyed gawk. Her eyebrows jumped up in surprise. “Kara! I don’t know why I’m so surprised to see you, considering you work here.”

Kara let out a breathless laugh. Even to her, it sounded a bit nervous. She scolded herself for a second before rebooting her thoughts, and said, “I mean, we saw each other an hour ago. What are _ you _doing here?” It was less than an hour, actually. Forty-five minutes, to be exact.

Lena still had her hand on Ruby’s back as she said, “I went to a briefing with a friend. She had to run for another meeting and I volunteered to babysit her daughter.” She glanced down at Ruby to make her point, who was standing there with fidgety hands. “Apparently all her friends have been raving about your ice cream for days and she always wanted to come try it.”

“Yeah?” Kara beamed at Ruby, who smiled back at her shyly. “I hope we don’t disappoint then.”

“I could always buy more ice cream if I don’t like it.” Ruby shrugged. “Aunt Lena wouldn’t say no to me.”

“Ruby!” Lena scolded. She looked genuinely offended by Ruby’s words, and Kara couldn’t help but let out a giggle. 

She tapped the glass, directly over the largest bucket of ice cream encased underneath. “Ruby said she wanted two Supergirls in waffle tacos. Do you still want that?”

“Definitely,” Ruby told her with an impish grin.

However, Lena narrowed her eyes. She squinted, for the first time _ ever, _at the red, blue, and yellow swirls of ice cream in front of them. She glanced at the monogrammed name above the bucket, and then up at Kara with a perfectly arched eyebrow. “Two? Of that?”

“Why not?” Ruby craned her neck up at Lena. She pointed at the ice cream. “Don’t you want ice cream too?”

“I’ve already had some, honey,” Lena pointed out. 

“You can never have too much ice cream,” Ruby said, in sync with Kara as she said it too. Their coordinated reaction made them grin at each other through the glass. 

Lena rolled her eyes at them, but the amusement was clear in the quirk of her lips. “Too much ice cream is bad for you, and _ someone _needs to be an adult to make that clear.” She poked Ruby’s cheek, who wrinkled her nose in return. Lena chuckled and turned her attention back to Kara. “One Supergirl in a waffle taco, please.”

“Two!” Ruby complained. “We could try it together!”

“Yeah!” Kara agreed. And she definitely wasn’t just saying that because she wanted Lena’s approval of the dish she invented, _ definitely _not. “It’s cheap, it’s delicious, what more do you want from me?”

“Oh, no, I—” Lena broke her thoughts with a little laugh. Kara already had the glass latched open on her side, a trusty ice cream scooper in one hand and a styrofoam box with a waffle taco in the other. “I wouldn’t like it. Trust me.”

“What makes you say that?” Kara glanced up at her as she spooned out a large chunk of colorful ice cream. Her life’s work. Her life’s _ greatest _achievement, being pawned off in a waffle taco in her left hand. She almost puffed her chest in pride as she said, “Cat Grant’s a big fan of the ice cream. And everyone in National City trusts Cat Grant’s word.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust the woman, it’s just that sometimes, sadly, people have different tastes.” Lena crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side. Kara almost missed dropping the second scoop into the styrofoam entirely. “And Supergirl doesn’t seem… like my taste.”

Kara paused. 

Clearing her throat and recollecting her thoughts, she asked, “How do you know that if you’ve never even tried it?”

Lena hummed. “Same way I know that lifting weights isn’t for me but spin class is.”

“What about Supergirl don’t you like?” Kara challenged. A third scoop plopped into the waffle taco. Ruby was basically drooling against the glass, her eyes fixated on every scoop being dropped into the styrofoam. “Maybe you’re wrong this time.”

Lena was staring at her intently. Her look was inscrutable. “Why do you care so much about what I think about an ice cream flavour, Kara?” she asked. There was no sting to her words. She was just genuinely confused, and Kara almost winced.

_ Because I’m the inventor of the flavor and I just really want to see if you like it, damn it. _

“Everyone likes Supergirl ice cream,” she said with a shrug. One last final scoop was spooned out from the never-ending supply in front of her. Ruby looked like she wanted to do a fist pump. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who hated it just by looking at it.”

Lena got a good laugh from that. “It might seem weird, I know, but I guess I just— here, honey.” She fished out a hundred dollar bill from her slender wallet and handed it to Ruby, who sprinted to the cash register with the box. With Ruby taken care of, Lena was back to Kara. She sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, and continued with, “I don’t know, it looks… odd, to me? And banana, blueberry, and strawberry all together in something cold, sweet, and diary? No thank you.”

“You’re making fun of it now but wait until you try it.” Kara plucked out a tiny spoon from beside her. She scooped a tiny lick of Supergirl onto it and held it out to Lena. “It’s a sample. If you try it, I _ promise _you’ll like it.”

Her arms still crossed, Lena tilted her head and said, “You know, I’ve always pegged you for a Supergirl fan.”

Kara dropped her sample from across the glass and scrunched her brow. “What does that mean?”

“It means you like really sweet things,” Lena explained. She pointed to graphic tee she was wearing underneath her apron. Looking down, Kara could see an orange popsicle cartoon sticking out. “And I don’t really blame you,” she mused, unfolding her arms, “you’re a sweet person yourself.”

Kara tried not to preen at the compliment. She cleared her throat and licked off the spoon, then threw it in the bin underneath the counter. “So, um, I’m guessing you don’t like candy then?” she said stupidly.

“Well, I’m only human,” Lena said in amusement. “But not too much, if you get it. I’ll gladly eat a pastry but I’d much rather be chowing down on a salad.”

The disgusted face Kara subconsciously made was funny to Lena. She laughed loudly and shook her head, dispelling the last chortles in her throat. Kara could feel subtle heat creeping up in her neck and cheeks, and she tilted her head at Lena with a bashful smile. The way Lena laughed made it so that the veins in her neck stood out. And the mole in the near center of her throat was more prominent than ever, and that was all that Kara could focus on. All it did was made her blush more furiously.

“Can I make a deal with you then?” she blurted out. 

“A deal?” 

Kara ducked her head from her piercing eyes, half embarrassed and half breathless. It was now or never. She silently prayed to herself. 

“Next Wednesday, I’ll choose your ice cream. No mint chocolate,” she explained. She continued when Lena only raised a curious eyebrow and said nothing. Kara leaned on the counter and bounced on her heels. “Any time you don’t like the flavor, even slightly, I’ll refund you and get you free mint chocolate for a month.”

“What do you gain if I like it?” Lena said hesitantly.

“Seeing you like something I suggested,” Kara said proudly. “And if you genuinely like it, the next Wednesday after that I’ll get you something new again. Until eventually I’ll make you try Supergirl. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll forever have bragging rights about changing your ‘sophisticated tastes’.”

“So you’re going to slowly feed me sweeter and sweeter ice cream until I stoop onto Supergirl’s level?” Lena mused.

Kara nodded enthusiastically. 

“You’re evil, Kara,” Lena scolded. But she split into a lovely smile and stepped closer to the glass between them. She stuck out her hand and Kara took it without thinking, shaking their firm hands together like it was an official seal. “I’ll take you up on the offer.”

“You won’t regret it,” Kara promised her with a beam.

As if on cue, Ruby walked back over to them with a lower lip dripping with yellow and blue. Lena swiped it away and chided her lightly. She waved at Kara and said her goodbyes and thank yous, and she was up, up, and away in her black Sedan. 

Later that night, Kara was wiping off the small tables in their shop when she paused and nearly kicked herself. She swore and groaned.

She forgot to ask Lena for her phone number.

* * *

A week later, Lena came back into the shop just after noon.

She was wearing something more casual this time around. A blazer outfit with an undershirt that showed off her greedy cleavage, and Kara nearly had to tear her eyes away from her neckline in order to seem civil. There was a phone to her ear, but she put it down the moment she was two feet away from Kara. A gracious smile made Kara beam even wider. 

“I was beginning to think you chickened out,” Kara teased, leaning on the marble counter.

“Oh, please,” Lena said with a scoff. She crossed her arms and lifted her chin, and the silent defiance made Kara want to snicker. “So? What does the chef recommend?”

“You’ll see. Wait here,” Kara told her. Then she sprinted to the back, where they kept their large locker full of other ice cream flavors. She squeezed herself through the bolted door and silently counted each shelf she passed by. Her arms were raising with goosebumps by the time she spotted the neatly labeled ice cream tub in the back corner, tainted by a yellow sticky note that had _“For Lena!!!”_ on it. 

She practically ripped the lid wide open with an arm, then scooped out a hefty amount onto a glass bowl she brought with her. The finishing touch was the shop’s famous topper— a bite-sized dark chocolate piece that had a triangular ‘S’ on it. 

When she sprinted back to the shop, Kara felt comically relieved to see Lena still standing there. She placed the bowl on top of the glass and did the jazz hands. “Ta da!”

Lena picked up the ice cream bowl wearily. She looked like the dessert was going to bite her as she peered into it, picking up the little spoon that sunk into the yellow-ish white substance. She looked up at Kara. “I was going to guess vanilla but even I know that you won’t play it safe,” she said with a quirk of the eyebrow.

Kara laughed. “It’s Irish cream.”

“Irish?” Lena suddenly looked amused. “Have you been looking through my online biography, Kara?”

She frowned and put her hands on her hips. “What?” 

“I’m Irish,” Lena answered. She kept mixing the spoon in with the ice cream, but never put it far up enough to bring it to her lips. “But not enough to wear green all the time, just so you know.”

“Oh! Wait. Really?” Kara gaped at her. She shook it off with an unfazed grin. “But green definitely is your color, if no one’s told you.”

Lena only hummed at that. She kept poking the ice cream, and Kara kept wanting to tilt her elbow far enough that the spoon finally touched lips. It was agitating her with every second that passed by, and the glint in Lena’s eyes most likely meant she was doing it on purpose.

“Just eat it already,” Kara groaned.

Lena chuckled. She let go of her spoon and said, “How about we just go sit down so you’ll stop bouncing and looking over the glass?”

“Uh…” She did a full body twist to look behind her. Her break was in ten minutes. Which means Alex will only give her half of a hell if she abandoned ship now. Kara fought down her glee. She subtly cleared her throat and answered, “Sounds good to me. I wanna see the look on your face when you realize I just gave you sweet angel tears.”

When Lena rolled her eyes, her delight was betrayed by the smile on her lips. Kara shimmied out of her apron and hung it up on the hanger behind her, sliding out from her corner to join Lena on the other side. Her friends were staring holes into the back of her head, but Kara refused to look behind her to meet their perplexed stares. 

They sat down on the nearest empty table, which happened to be the one farthest from the counter. Kara glanced up only to see Alex’s open stare, and she subtly stuck out her tongue before paying all her attention back to Lena.

“What made you pick Irish cream?” Lena inquired.

“It’s the closest thing to mint chocolate, except that it doesn’t taste like toothpaste,” Kara said with a shrug. 

Lena chuckled. She stabbed the ice cream again, which was slowly melting into a lifeless puddle, and Kara couldn’t help but bring her chair closer to the table to watch. “Go on,” Kara urged.

A quick spoonful of ice cream went into Lena’s mouth. Her cheeks were brought in to suck all of the dessert, and the stages she went through with her face was entertainment itself. She looked dismayed at first by the taste, then she opened her mouth slightly, then closed it again to seem rather satisfied, until she finally put down her spoon with incomprehensible look.

Kara put her hands on the table and rested her chin on it. “Do you like it?” she asked, because she didn’t have the slightest inkling to guess Lena’s feelings on the flavor. 

“It’s…” Lena trailed off. She smacked her lips. “It’s honestly good. Surprisingly.”

“See? I told you!” Kara split into a victorious grin. In turn, Lena laughed at her delightful surprise. “But why ‘surprisingly’? You didn’t believe me at _ all _ that I could guess your type?” When her words caught up with her, Kara felt a vein pop out of her neck in slight embarrassment. “Type of ice cream,” she said quickly, only because Lena was raising her eyebrows like _ that. _

“Well, it was really sweet,” Lena said. She smacked her lips again and took another spoonful of ice cream. “It tastes like hot chocolate, in a way. I’m not much of a fan, but then I tasted the whiskey and suddenly it was like tasting the tears of a god.”

Kara laughed loudly at that. “Round two next Wednesday then,” she said proudly. _ Round two of spending more time with you, _she thought, but she would never admit it out loud.

“I can’t wait to see what other monstrosity you bring in then,” Lena said with a lilt. She brought up her spoon in cheers to Kara. “So, what do you usually do when you’re not serving ice cream to the children of National City?” 

“Kids aren’t the only ones who like ice cream,” Kara argued.

“Debatable.”

“You eat ice cream every week,” Kara pointed out.

“I feel like you’re the kind of person to sing in the shower everyday,” Lena mused, pointedly avoiding her comment.

Just like that, they delved into friendly conversation. It was almost nothing like the small talk they shared while Kara painstakingly scooped out her singular scoop of ice cream every week. They talked about the universe itself, and how the political climate in National City was changing, and most importantly, how NSYNC desperately needed a reunion.

When Alex finally had enough and called her from the break room, Kara had to say goodbye. She smiled apologetically at Lena, who already guessed the situation and was cleaning up their table. Her ice cream bowl was completely void of any more Irish cream. Kara tried not to swell in pride.

“See you next week then?” Kara asked her hopefully.

Lena smiled gently at her. “Of course.” 

Without thinking, Kara reached over and hugged her tightly. It didn’t last for any longer than five seconds, but the beating in her heart stayed erratic for the rest of the day.

* * *

“You’re going to scare away every little kid in the shop if you keep looking around like that,” Winn complained. He swatted her arm when she pressed against him, neck craning upwards to watch whoever poured into their ice cream store. 

When it turned out to be an old lady, Kara put down her feet in disappointment. “Do you think she forgot?” she asked, uncertainty in her voice. “She never comes here this late…”

“It’s four p.m., I’m _ sure _she just has more important things to do that isn’t ice cream,” Winn told her. He swatted her arm again when Kara jumped up at the sound of jingling bells. It turned out to be a little kid and her mom. “Besides, we close at midnight.”

“But she always comes here in the morning,” Kara mumbled. She distracted herself by scooping chocolate fudge for the impatient man in front of her. When that was taken care of, she was sliding up beside Winn again. 

“She owns like a bazillion businesses, I would’ve been more surprised if she _ never _forgot about coming here,” Winn said with a half shrug. He punched in numbers on the register as he talked. “Stop sulking like a baby and keep scooping ice cream.” 

“I am,” Kara told him. She made a point in waving her still-wet ice cream scooper at his face, and a splatter of strawberry hit his chest. 

Before he could react and grab her scooper, Kara took two wide steps away from him just as the door tinkled with the sound of bells. She immediately locked eyes with Lena, who smiled at the sight of her. Kara didn’t need to feel the jab at her side to know that she was grinning right back.

“Watching you make goo-goo eyes at her gives me second hand embarrassment, have I ever told you that?” Winn whined at her side.

“Shut up,” she hissed at him. Then Lena was at the front in an instant and she chirped, “Lena!”

When Winn snorted, she jabbed him with the scooper. He closed his mouth immediately and scampered off back to the register. Kara hiked her glasses back up her nose and regarded Lena with another smile. 

“Kara,” Lena said kindly. “I’m sorry, you probably haven’t noticed, but I’ve been a little tied up at work. But I suppose coming to see you later is better than never, right?”

_ That’s all I’ve noticed, _ Kara wanted to say. Instead she said, “That is _ exactly _right! Are you ready for round two of expanding your horizons on ice cream?”

Lena laughed softly at her antics. Before she could even answer, Kara was diving into the glass with a fresh ice cream scooper. Twenty seconds later, there were four fresh scoops of yellow and orange ice cream in a pristine bowl. A mint leaf topped the entire thing.

“You’re quite the artisan, Kara Danvers,” Lena purred. She took the bowl and watched Kara awkwardly shimmy out of her apron and out into the open. Lena didn’t lift the spoon until they were sat down on an empty table, surrounded by happily chattering patrons. 

“Everyone around us is eating Supergirl ice cream,” Kara commented. She leaned against her chair and crossed her arms while Lena looked around, amusement quirked in her lips. 

“Take the road less followed,” Lena cited, laughing when Kara made another face. She finally picked up her spoon and looked down. “Am I supposed to guess what flavors these are or are you going to tell me?”

“Actually, I was going to tell you, but now that you mention it, making you guess is a lot more fun,” Kara said with a grin. It made the corners of her eyes crinkle. 

Lena huffed in mock irritation. Then she took a hefty amount of both flavors onto her spoon and lifted it up to Kara, before licking it clean. Kara watched her intently.

It only took six seconds for Lena to finish it all. She had a pleasant look of surprise on her face, and Kara did a mental fist pump. “I was expecting something weird like unicorn hair or butterscotch,” Lena told her, her jaw working, “but I’m guessing this is lemon and orange?”

“Bingo.” Kara pointed at her. She kept smiling when Lena continued to eat the ice cream. “My logic’s simple. They’re plain flavors, citrusy but sweet, and far, far away from being mint chocolate chip.”

“I thought it was your job to love all ice cream flavors and not discriminate?” Lena scolded. 

“Sue me.”

Lena hummed. “You know, I feel bad that I’m the only one eating ice cream in an ice cream shop between the two of us,” she said. She looked down at Kara’s empty spot, and looked amused when she caught the longing look Kara was giving her ice cream. “Why don’t you get another spoon?”

It took exactly five seconds for that request to catch up with Kara’s brain. “You want to share your ice cream?” she asked dumbly. “It’s yours, I couldn’t just—”

“Kara, you gave me four giant scoops.” Lena smiled gently at her, pushing the bowl to the center of the small table. “As much as I love ice cream, I don’t think I know anyone who could eat this much and not get sick.”

“Then you clearly haven’t met me,” Kara said proudly. She glanced down at Lena’s half eaten ice cream, and thought that yeah, she definitely wanted some. “One time, my sister found me in my apartment with three finished containers of ice cream and a fourth on my lap.”

“No!” Lena looked entertained and appalled at her confession. “That’s not humanly possible.”

“Guess I’m not human.” Kara assured her that she would be back, then sped off to find a spoon. She easily found one on their side table full of utensils and napkins. 

She plucked one off from the bucket, and was about to make her exit when Alex grabbed her elbow. 

“Did you ask her out? Already?” Alex asked her, sounding both dismayed and impressed.

“What? No,” Kara answered quickly. She scoffed and waved a hand in dismissal. Alex let go of her elbow. “She asked me if I could sit down with her while she ate ice cream. I recommended some flavors to her and she felt like we could, you know, maybe get along?”

Alex stared at her for a long time. “So your long time work crush asks you to sit down with her for two weeks in a row just so you two could talk while she ate ice cream and you _ don’t _feel faint?”

“Oh, trust me, once this sets in when I get home, I’ll be needing more ice cream to eat,” Kara assured her, shaking her head up and down like a windup toy. 

“Christ, Kara,” Alex muttered. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I’m happy for you, I really am. But for the love of _ god, _just ask her out and take her somewhere that isn’t here. You’re not getting paid for glancing down at her boobs every other second.”

“I wasn’t—” Kara said weakly. Alex made a pointed look. “Fine, fine. Okay. Give me ten minutes? Please?”

Alex looked torn. Eventually, she gave in to her pout, and she exhaled heavily. “Just be glad that you’re my sister.”

“Every day of my life.” Kara hugged her before dashing off. She was back in her seat in front of Lena, a silver spoon in her hand and a glint in her eyes that made Lena’s eyebrows jump up.

“I hope I’m catching you during your break,” Lena said apologetically. “I don’t want you to miss out on work if—”

“Alex was just briefing me on something,” Kara explained. She stuck the spoon into the ice cream and took out a humble amount. “And believe me, if I’m skipping work to spend time with you, it's nothing I can't handle. You’re fun to be around.”

Lena looked genuinely surprised at her words. “I honestly thought you weren’t saying no to me because you were being nice,” she said with a chuckle.

Kara frowned. She swallowed down the ice cream and pointed her spoon at Lena. "_Trust _me, I’d rather hear you talk about quantum physics for hours than hear one of my friends talk about ice cream. And I love ice cream!”

“You’re an anomaly in a world full of algorithms, you know that?” Lena teased. She took another spoonful of ice cream. “Not that I’m complaining. You’re the only one that makes me feel… normal, I guess.”

Kara smiled softly at her. She hasn’t noticed until now that Lena’s eyes were a shade paler in the sunlight than she thought. Her skin looked like ivory, and it made the flush in her face that much more prominent. Red lips were making thoughts run through her head faster than she could catch them and put them down.

“Do you really like ice cream that much to come here every week or is it something else?” Kara spouted out. She felt a little horrified at her words. “Sorry, I didn’t mean— um, I really like ice cream. I would definitely come here every day if I didn’t work here. But you come here every Wednesday, so is it like, um, a work schedule thing, or—”

Lena cut her off with a laugh. It made Kara laugh a little, feeling a lot less tense than before. Her shoulders slumped and Lena answered her, waving her spoon in the air as she swallowed the rest of her ice cream. “Wednesdays are the only time I have between work to get out for some fresh air. This place is quaint, and homey, if that makes sense. I really like it.”

“Ah.” Kara nodded her head in understanding, more ice cream slotting into her mouth.

“And there’s also you.”

The spoon almost touched the back of her throat. Coughing and slightly flustered, Kara said, a bit more high pitched than normal, “Me? You come here for me?”

“Sure,” Lena said with a little shrug, and Kara could be imagining it, but she was turning a subtle shade of pink. She offered Kara a tissue paper, who took it with grateful hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you, but you're easily the brightest person in the room. You make everyone feel at ease, and I could always see you making kids laugh and the adults crack a smile. I’m willing to bet your charisma wasn’t needed on your resume.”

“You’re icing me up for free ice cream,” Kara accused.

And just like last week, they chatted the day away. Kara’s promise of only ten minutes were washed away once Lena opened her mouth. It was almost absurd at how fast Kara could tune in once she heard Lena’s voice. 

Once ten minutes became an hour, Kara knew that they had to say goodbye.

Lena checked her phone and frowned at it, clearing dismayed at a notification. Their freshly cleaned out bowl was already in Kara’s hand, both spoons tossed in so carelessly. “Same time next week?” Kara asked her.

“Until you lose,” Lena promised.

Chuckling, Kara made a move forward to give her a parting hug. But Lena stopped her, holding out a hand and fishing her pocket for something within. She pulled out a pen and motioned for Kara to hold out her arm. 

Her pen touched Kara’s wrist and she had to suppress a shiver at the sensation. Her skin felt ticklish with every loopy stroke of Lena’s handwriting. 

“There,” Lena said. She capped her pen and put it back in her pocket, chin tilting upwards with a smile. “Call me sometime? I’d love for this to be more than Wednesday ice cream dates.”

Everything after that was a blur. There was a hug, Kara knew that much. Lena was out of the door and her legs were carrying her to the back of the shop, where she mindlessly rubbed a rug in circles over a sticky countertop. 

There were ten clear digits on her wrist, accompanied by a black inked heart. 

And _ dates. _ Lena called it their _ dates. _

  
“Is your sister okay?” Brainy murmured from beside her. “She seems… lethargic.”

“She’s fine,” Alex said breezily. Kara continued to rub in circles. “Just tell Nia to put a bottle of Advil in the break room before next week, will you?”

* * *

“Vanilla?” Lena exclaimed. She looked down at the creamy dessert in front of her. “Is it an inside joke? A code? A sign?”

“No,” Kara said with a laugh. “I just thought you needed a break before I let all hell let loose with every flavor I could find. And look— it’s not all vanilla.” She pointed at the chocolate stick poking out from the ice cream. 

Lena snorted. She took the spoon Kara was offering instead of complaining about it, and then took a big chunk out of the bowl. “Are you making me eat all of the ice cream in bowls?”

“Of course not!” Kara exclaimed. She stuck her own spoon in the transparent bowl. “Next week. I’ll find the biggest, baddest waffle taco bowl I can find and make you eat out of it, dipped in chocolate and sprinkles and all.”

“I don’t know if I should be scared or impressed,” Lena said with a chuckle.

“Well, we just gotta see, right?” Kara flashed her a smile.

Lena smiled back at her. The tilt of her lips looked as natural as the accompanied drumming in Kara’s chest. Kara wasn’t stupid— she knew Lena had a tough time outside of ice cream and NSYNC reunion debates. Almost everyday on TV, she saw exactly the kind of things Lena had to go through. That included null gossip, the bad-mouthing from other companies— and that was just half of it. 

If Kara could freeze those press conferences over one ice cream at a time, then she was happy.

“Kara?”

At the sound of her name, Kara brought her head up, mouth still around her cold spoon. “Yep?” she said, though it sounded muffled through the tip of her utensil.

Lena only laughed, loudly and from her chest. It made Kara beam at her even wider. It wasn’t hard to, honestly. She was easily the most beautiful person that’s ever come through the door of her tiny ice cream shop. And, as odd as it sounded, she just seemed to glow even more with each passing day Kara got to spend with her.

Her voice started out croaky and strained. “Does it…” Lena cleared her throat, spoon coming down slowly from her mouth. “Does it bother you? The things you see about me on TV?”

“The—?” Kara scrunched her brow together. Then a light bulb knocked itself against her head and she sat up straighter. “Oh! You mean— right. Um. Does it bother _ you_?”

  
A perfect eyebrow arched her way. “By now, I assumed you knew I spent my entire life under my family's name. I was asking you, Kara.” Her voice dropped in volume. Not into a whisper, no, but into something delicate. “You never bring my family up into conversation. And I’m so thankful for that, I really am, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder if you’re doing this because you feel bad for me. And I never want to put you in a position where—”

“Lena, no. Never ever.” Kara took hold of the hand laying limp on the table. She squeezed, and felt her heart hiccup a singular beat. “I love talking to you. I don’t care if you have horns or you have green skin, I’d so much rather hang out with you than spend two more minutes listening to Winn talk about aliens.”

Lena’s smile was back on her face. Kara was unbearably glad to see it again. 

That was when she realized that she was still gripping the back of Lena’s hand. Neither of them made no move to glance at it nor move away, and Kara didn’t plan on changing that any time soon. So she cleared her throat, suppressing the mild panic that just passed through her, and continued, “Plus it’s not hard to like you, I mean— the first time you came here, I thought you were a runway model!”

“Really?” Lena said with a subtle smile. There was still no twitch, no subtle move that made it clear she wanted to tug away from Kara’s grip. “That comes from the girl built like a tank.”

Kara gave her a blushy grin. _ “Stop,” _ she said, and a snort rose from her when they started giggling. Her snort only made them laugh harder, and they ended up getting dirty looks from other patrons in the shop. They didn’t care though. 

They continued laughing the afternoon away with melted vanilla ice cream and debates on whether or not white chocolate was real chocolate. 

By the time Lena’s phone buzzed relentlessly with an app reminding her of an upcoming board meeting, they had to touch down back to reality. Lena gave her phone a long and nasty look, before flipping it upside down with a sigh to glance at Kara with an apologetic look. 

Throughout the day, their hands left each other’s to make crazy gestures to bring an anecdote to life, but they always drifted back together in the end. Their fingers were even interlocked. It made Kara’s neck burn with the realization that someone could walk past the window and speculate on their very unique, very “it wasn’t like that” situation. 

Thankfully, Lena didn’t seem to think it was a big deal. She easily slipped her fingers away from Kara’s to pocket her phone after dropping her spoon in the ice cream bowl. Kara slid the bowl closer to her side and watched Lena put her things away, worrying her lip with a crumpled brow.

“Why are you looking at me like I just ran over a cat with my car?” Lena asked her, and she chuckled a little to herself.

Kara glanced out of the shop. The large window showed her a navy sky and a barely red horizon. Outside, people were milling around in hoodies and coats, and those without them were hunching their shoulders and rubbing their hands together to gather warmth. 

“You don’t have a coat,” she explained.

“It’s fine,” Lena said offhandedly. She stood up and began to push her chair in. Kara mimicked her movements. “My driver should be here any minute. I won’t be outside for longer than a minute.”

“Then that’s a minute too long,” Kara said, sounding a tad exasperated. She was beginning to sound like Eliza, and she was glad that Alex wasn’t here to witness it. “Stay here for a second, please?”

She sped away without waiting for an answer. She weaved around Winn and Nia, who were already cleaning off the sticky counters. Winn complained after her, calling her a freeloader for choosing to ditch some hours off her work to spend it with Lena. (And it wasn’t like she regretted it. She got Brainy to work her shift for her, and she’d do it again in a damn heartbeat.)

Snatching something big and woolly off the coat hangers in the break room, Kara ran back to their table. Lena was still there, looking confused but delighted to see her again. “You really did run for a second,” Lena said with a blink. “How are you so fast?”

“Blame Alex and her jogs,” Kara said. She held up her hoodie. “Take this with you?”

Lena stared. And she stared, for a very long time, before her eyes snapped upwards to Kara’s wobbly smile. “You have… a Supergirl ice cream hoodie?”

“The very one,” Kara declared. “Cat Grant sent a whole bunch of these for the staff. As a thank you for giving her ‘National City’s national ice cream’, I think.” It was a pretty looking hoodie, in all honesty. Dark blue, with the ‘S’ symbol stitched in red over the heart. It was easily her favorite thing to wear, and she couldn’t imagine living without it. 

“Are you sure?” Lena said hesitantly.

Kara lowered the hoodie. “If you don’t want to wear it, it’s fine,” she said as nonchalantly as she could, “I just didn’t want you getting cold or anything, because of me.”

Lena took her hoodie anyway. She gazed at it for a curiously long time, hefting it up and down as if testing how heavy it was. When she looked back at Kara, she smiled big and said, “Thank you. Even if it turns out that I think Supergirl ice cream is the worst thing in the world, I know in my heart that this hoodie will be accompanying me on long nights.”

“If! That’s a big if, Lena,” Kara pointed out to her, wagging a finger accusingly. It made Lena laugh, and she added, “Trust me, _ kale _is the worst thing in the world. And Supergirl is on the other end of the spectrum.”

The corners of Lena’s lips twitched to suppress a grin. “But I love kale.”

“What?” Kara blinked. “You mean you eat it _ willingly_?”

“Don’t you?”

“No!” Kara was _mortified_. “I don’t think I even know you anymore.”

They bickered about it longer than they thought they could. Lena’s driver impatiently honked at them to speed it up, and Lena waved at her through the transparent door. She put the hoodie on while bounding over to her car, and Kara had a near stroke seeing Lena Kieran Luthor in the comfiest, navy blue sweater that had “hope, help, and ice cream for all” on the lower back. 

* * *

The very next week, Kara got a text from Lena. 

_ T-minus ten minutes and I’m on your block. _

She sent a heart back.

And then she was at the soft ice cream server, a large waffle cone dipped in chocolate and coated in sprinkles around the rim. She pressed down on one of the levers, an espresso fudge flavor that was loved by both sleep-deprived college students and harrowing adults. 

She stuck out her tongue in order to concentrate on perfecting the swirl. Before she could give it the perfect cow lick, Alex touched her shoulder, and she yelped in surprise. 

“Never seen you look so concentrated on a barely minimum wage job,” Alex said. She squinted at her sister, hand still on Kara’s shoulder.

Kara laughed as naturally as she could. She spun around to face Alex, but she tried her best not to jerk the ice cream around even an inch. “Just… excited for work! You know.”

“Right.” Alex still looked suspicious. She dropped her hand away from Kara and said, “Tell your girlfriend I said hi.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Kara blurted out.

Then Alex’s eyebrow rose slowly. She took account of Kara’s serious expression, and the twiddling of her thumb over the hem of her shirt— then her eyebrows finally sky rocketed upwards, and she said skeptically, “She’s not? Then what’s all the ice cream dates for? The barely tolerable PDA? In front of _ my _ice cream?”

“The farthest we went was hold hands,” Kara argued.

“And undress each other with bedroom eyes!” Alex made a _ hurk _ noise in mock disgust. “In front of my _ goddamn _ice cream.”

Kara threw her arms up (or, arm— the one that wasn’t holding onto Lena’s tall ice cream cone). She wrapped a napkin around the handle of the cone and turned her back on her sister. She decided on giving Alex a silent treatment.

“How are you two not dating?” Alex asked incredulously. “I’ve seen literal chemical reactions with less chemistry than you two sitting down across from each other.”

“She doesn’t like me like that,” Kara groaned. She opened a large freezer to pull out a tub of Neapolitan ice cream, thumping it on the counter for Nia to collect later. All the while, Lena’s ice cream stayed in one hand as steadily as she could. 

“Have you even _ asked _her?”

Kara made a face. “Well. _ No. _But—”

“Then what the hell are you waiting for?” Alex spun her around. “You know you can’t keep going on ice cream dates with her forever right?”

“Try me,” she muttered.

Alex just rolled her eyes. She let go of Kara’s shoulders, cracking her knuckles in an attempt to look less annoyed. “Look, I know it can get terrifying when you confess your feelings for someone, but _ trust me, _it’s the best thing you could do for both her and yourself.”

“I think you’re forgetting the part where I've dated other people before.” Kara stuck out her tongue at her sister to walk around her. She found the next walk-in freezer over and opened that one, only to stare back at rows and rows of mint chocolate ice cream. Lena’s favorite. She swallowed the lump in her throat. 

Alex was back at her side. “Then what’s holding you back, Kara?”

Kara made an impatient noise at the back of her throat. She pulled out a bucket of green ice cream and set it down on the counter behind her, one hand still wrapped around the cone of slowly melting ice cream. “I don’t know. I guess she's— _I don't know._ Different.”

“What, that she doesn’t like Supergirl ice cream?” Alex said sardonically. At Kara’s silence, she gawked. “You’re kidding? She doesn’t like Supergirl ice cream? _ The hell, _Kara? You’re attracted to people who—?”

“No!” Kara was turning red at the tips of her ears. She spun around to look at her sister, frustration coating her words. “No, I meant that she— I don’t _ know, _she’s—”

“The espresso to your fudge?” Alex pointed at the espresso fudge cone. Kara instinctively brought it closer to herself. “Strawberry to your chocolate swirl? Look, I can keep naming ice cream flavors all day. It’s my _ job. _And it’s yours too.”

Kara ducked her head, bringing her glasses up closer to her face to let her other hand do something. 

Alex’s voice dropped to a softer tone. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t cover you to get the girl.” She held up her hand when Kara jerked forward. “For today. Only today.”

Nearly squealing, Kara gave her an one-armed hug. She thanked her sister over and over until Alex got sick of it and sent her away, and Kara practically bounced out of the freezer room. 

Standing delicately off to the side of the stretched out counter full of ice cream tubs, Lena was looking down at her phone with a tiny frown. She looked up when she caught Kara out of the corner of her eye, and smiled brightly enough to melt the fudge off Kara’s fingertips.

“Hey, you,” Lena said genially. 

Once Kara was at arm's length, she held out the ice cream. It was still in it’s perfect swirled shape, though the rim was starting to drip with brown streaks. She smiled bashfully. “I got caught up with something at the back,” she explained, and watched as Lena took the ice cream with a quirked eyebrow, “it’s espresso fudge. Isn’t too sweet but isn’t bitter either. I think you’ll like it.”

“Oddly enough, I was craving something like this before I got here,” Lena noted. She took a delicate lick of the ice cream and smiled cordially. “I didn’t get the chance to make myself some coffee this morning. And good lord, Kara, I think this is better than coffee.”

She did another mental fist pump. “Kara Danvers wins again,” she whooped. “If you want, we could run to the coffee shop across the street.” Kara put her hands on her hips, rocking her body back and forth on her heels. She added, “I’ll pay. It’s my treat.”

“You’ve been giving me treats all month, I couldn’t,” Lena said with a laugh. She pointed a pinky finger at Kara’s shirt. “And you’re still wearing your staff shirt. If you’re still working, I wouldn’t want to—”

“Alex let me get off work early, it’s fine,” she said quickly. Because all she wanted to do was spend time with Lena right now.

Lena looked slightly confused. “It’s only ten in the morning.”

“I took a double shift last night,” she explained. It wasn’t a lie, thankfully. She beamed to make her statement as real as possible.

Lena bought into it. She took another lick of her ice cream and stepped aside to let Kara lead the way. “By the way, I think collared shirts look really nice on you,” she commented, poking the side of Kara’s neck. 

Kara chuckled, swatting her hand away and using the other hand to crack open the door. The bell jingled for them, and she turned back in time to see Alex and Nia watching her. Alex flashed her a quick thumbs up and Nia waved frantically, mouthing something that was almost like _ You’re doing great! _

She whipped her head back. She caught Lena in only a split second, eyes looking over her arms that were only half covered by short sleeves. But when she blinked, Lena was smiling up at her face, and Kara let it go as nothing more than an apparition.

Lena had surprisingly finished her ice cream by the time they made their way across the street. There was a point in their short walk where a piece of fudge landed on her lower wrist, and she overcame the problem by lifting her arm and licking it clean off. It was sufficient in cleaning up the fudge, but also in making Kara’s brain melt like soft ice cream in the summer heat.

The only thing left by the time they were in front of the shop was the cone. She made a move to drop into the trash can beside the coffee shop, but Kara gently wrapped her fingers around Lena’s wrist.

“You don’t wanna eat the cone?” she asked, mostly to make sure she was seeing this right. Who _ doesn’t _eat the cone?

Lena shrugged. “I’ve never really been the one to. And there’s sprinkles on it.”

Kara pried off her fingers. She opted to cross her arms instead, gawking at Lena with the same horror she felt when she found out Lena loved kale just as much as she loved JC Chasez. “So? Sprinkles are the best part. And when you start from the bottom of the cone and make your way up? Heaven,” she said with a groan.

“It sounds like you want this cone more than I do,” Lena said in amusement.

“I’ll eat the rest of your cone for you if you take one bite. Just one,” she negotiated.

She raised her eyebrows. “Odd bargain. But I guess it works.” So she took a quick, nimble bite around the rim of the cone, and chewed for what felt like centuries. Kara watched her keenly, even going as far as to lean in to watch her reaction.

The sun hit the side of Lena’s face just enough to highlight the black in her irises. The rest was a pale green, a web full of darker hues that made Kara dizzy and want to peer into more. There was just this way that Lena looked at things that made it seem that she was always thinking, always analyzing, even for the taste of ice cream. It was cute, it really was, but it also made Kara want to pull over to the back alley to their right and kiss her until that guarded look was replaced by _ breathlessness. _

“That… wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.” Lena swallowed the last piece. She pointed the cone at Kara. “But not as good for me to swallow this whole in five seconds like you can.”

Kara took it gratefully, mopping all of her insane thoughts from a second ago under a rug. “I have a bottomless stomach, so not my fault,” she retorted. To make her point, she chomped off one third of the cone and chewed long enough to let it pass through her throat easily. 

Lena just laughed. She pushed Kara with her shoulder, and Kara beamed back at her. She chomped the other third and continued her conquest with chewing.

Then Lena clicked her tongue. She swiped her thumb with a lick of her tongue, then quickly brushed the side of Kara’s face. A small pink sprinkle fell away from the corner of her lip, and she only knew this by seeing it on Lena’s thumb, before it was quickly disposed by a shake of the hand. It happened so fast that Kara briefly wondered if it even happened. 

She shook off the sudden heat beaming throughout her body by whipping her head to the barista, who waved them over with a familiar, friendly smile. The last of the cone was quickly swallowed down in record time.

“It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you,” he said with a polite smile. He leaned on the counter across from Kara, showing a little tattoo on his inner wrist: an eighth music note. 

Her eyes lingered on the new tattoo for a couple seconds. When her eyes fell back onto the barista, she smiled easily. “Donovan!” she said accusingly, though her tone was still light with a tease. “You never told me you got a new tattoo. I thought we were friends?”

He laughed, wiping his palms on his green apron. “Well, it’s not like I could text you without knowing Alex was going to be on my ass for it,” he said with a shrug. They knew each other through her sister, when the pair had a biology project together back in college. Nowadays, Kara only ever got to catch up with him when she came to the coffee shop for something strong to keep her awake.

They bantered back and forth while he measured a precise cup of coffee next to the cash register. Kara was aware of Lena’s presence beside her, who had her arms crossed in a guarded way with an even more guarded expression. She flicked her eyes between Kara and the barista’s friendly conversation, eyes somewhat darkening when he offered to let her take hold of his wrist to take a closer look. Maybe it was a trick of the light.

When it came time to order, Kara barely had time to turn her head to look at Lena before the woman said evenly, “A regular macchiato, please.”

Kara quirked her eyebrow silently. Lena challenged her with the same eyebrow lift. “What?” she asked, and shrugged her shoulders when Kara continued her stare. “I think your sugary lifestyle is growing on me. My assistant looked at me like I had three heads this morning when I asked to add ranch to my salad for lunch.”

And then she laughed joyfully at that, chest swelling with pride that _ finally, _Lena would finally eat something that wasn’t leaves and measured amounts of Greek yogurt. The barista busied himself with Lena’s order, his back turned to them and humming the Led Zeppelin tune that played softly over the shop’s speakers.

Lena’s brow furrowed at her. “You don’t want anything?” she asked. 

Kara shrugged. “Caffeine doesn’t work on me. But ice cream does, and I never have to worry about running out of _ that, _so.” She grinned to herself.

Laughing softly, Lena elbowed her rib cage. “I swear we have to get you tested for type two diabetes someday,” she mused. Her joke made Kara “har har” in mockery.

Five minutes later, coffee was served on a saucer and with a small silver spoon that clanked softly against the edges of the cup as Lena stirred. They sat across from each other on a small table, almost identical to the one in the ice cream shop. They made small talk about their week, and even though Kara could recite from memory the things Lena was up to from their brief phone calls and texts, she hung onto every word.

She latched onto the way Lena looked at her. How brightly green her eyes were, how incredibly animated her hands seemed to be whenever she talked about some new gadget her team was working on. Whenever she chuckled or smile, the corners of her lips would turn up in a dimpled grin. 

Kara Danvers _ loved _ice cream with all her soul, but she knew that if it were up to her, she would let every ice cream in existence melt into nothing if it meant spending one more minute watching Lena talk about the different nutritional values of salads. 

And when Lena opened her mouth in a slack-jawed way to hearing Kara only ever ate Caesar salad drenched in bread and ranch dressing, exclaiming that “Kara! Caesar salad barely even _ counts _as a salad!”, she felt it.

If she was an ice cream cone and her heart was ice cream, the dessert was surely melting itself into the cracks between sidewalk concrete. 

Kara grinned goofily, and laughed and snorted so hard that her stomach was in stitches as Lena continued her assault on the validity of Caesar salad.

* * *

With the promise of something extra special and “nothing you’ve ever seen before, scout’s honor”, Lena sent her a text that she was officially on her way to the humble home of Supergirl ice cream.

She tried not to vibrate off the walls like a ping pong ball by cleaning the tops of the tables, even going as far as to scrape gum off the bottom with a wrinkled nose. All the while, Nia watched her with an amused cock of the eyebrow. The girl said nothing, though Kara could read her expression as clear as blinding day the moment she sat up from a painful crouching position underneath the table.

Rubbing her back like an old lady, Kara said tersely, “Shouldn’t you be doing something productive?”

“Well, yes, but also no,” she said with a lopsided grin. She pointed at the large clock on the wall. “The shop’s not even open yet and technically my shift starts in two minutes.”

“Okay, smarty pants,” Kara snorted. She shook out her hand to get rid of the pins and needles that festered in it. 

Before she could say more, Nia blurted out, “So why’s Lena coming here before opening time?”

Kara gave her an odd look. “Well, she’s ten minutes away so _technically_ she’ll be here five minutes after opening time.”

“Guess who’s the smartass now,” Nia deadpanned. She crossed her arms, a rag over her shoulder, and leaned against the closest table. She tilted her head at Kara. “You know, in case it hasn’t been blindingly obvious, Lena wouldn’t go here at the earliest time _ ever _for no reason.”

“Oh _ no, _not you too,” Kara said with a heavy loud groan. She dropped her bucket of chewed gum on the table. “Alex was trying to convince me last time. Winn kept making kissy faces at me for the past week and I swear if Brainy—”

“He’s definitely voting on the ‘you two will smooch soon’ side,” Nia told her.

“There’s a vote?” Kara frowned.

“What? No,” Nia said quickly. She waved her hand in the air. “Anyway. Didn’t Alex tell you to go for it two weeks ago? What blew up that plan?”

“Lena. Lena blew up that plan,” Kara said gloomily. She dropped the scraper into the bucket with a loud clang, motioning for Nia to get up so she could start scraping on that table.

Nia didn’t have to ask her to know what she meant. Without even turning fully, Kara could feel the pitiful look thrown her way. It made her shoulders hunch even further around herself. “Are you… ever going to tell her then?” Her voice was soft, gentle even. 

Kara relaxed, even if it was only a little bit. She made eye contact with Nia for a second before dropping it to look at the messy array of colorful gum under the table. She made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat and scooted backwards to prepare herself for some scraping. “I don’t know,” she said slowly, because it was the honest truth. “I’m more than okay where we are now, really. She even called me her best friend two days ago when she dropped off some sashimi. So. Yeah. Probably not, maybe yes, I don’t know.”

Nia became silent. She continued incessantly scraping, one hand gripping the table so it didn’t shake so much with the rigid movements of her arm. She thought that Nia had finally drifted away, probably already refilling the tubs out on the counter for the new day, but then there was a hand on her shoulder. 

“It it means anything, she looks at you first before looking at her mint chocolate,” she said simply. 

And then Nia was gone in a poof, as if she was never there. It made Kara huff when she turned around to find her friend nowhere, but her slight exasperation was relaxed when the soft jingle of the door caught her attention. 

It was still two minutes until opening time. She dismissed it anyway, opting to straighten herself out and wipe her suddenly sweaty palms on her slacks. “Lena!” she said happily.

Lena stood there, the morning sun haloing her dark hair like she was a goddess coming to bless her very soul. She smiled adoringly at Kara, head tilted ever so slightly, and said, “Sorry if I’m a little early. I told my driver to step on it because I was so excited to see you but he sped so fast down the highway that I barely had the breath to tell him he could slow down.”

Kara laughed at that. Scraper in the bucket and her demeanor a full 180 from before, she could already feel the sun beaming right into her heart. “I’m glad you didn’t get hurt,” she said genuinely, hands on her hips, “but I’m also glad you got here early because that means I could technically take a break right now and spend some more time with you.”

“I vaguely remember you telling me that there was a surprise for me when I got here,” Lena drawled, and the tilt of her lips meant that it was more than a vague remembrance. 

“Oh, definitely,” she said with a curling smile of her own. She gently took hold of Lena’s wrist and tugged her gently along. Sure, she could’ve shown her the way, but the warm touch of Lena’s ivory skin was a blessing that she couldn’t get enough of. “I was going to keep it a surprise but I couldn’t wait any longer. I’m getting you yogurt today!”

“Yogurt?” Lena seemed confused as they wove through the intricate rooms of the back. “Don’t you _ only _sell ice cream here? And the occasional cookie?”

“And cakes and catering,” Kara retorted, and it made Lena giggle. She relished in it, and it only pushed her to go on. They stopped directly in front of an unmarked fridge, but Kara had enough muscle memory to know it was the right one. She opened it and pulled out a small tub the height of her hand, then pivoted around to offer it to Lena. 

“Yogurt?” Lena said again, and she laughed much more merrily at it. She took the tub from Kara, then cracked open the lid to peer inside. When she only saw smooth white yogurt and mixed-in blueberries, she barked out an even louder laugh. “Why did you get me yogurt today? It’s the farthest thing from tooth-rotting ice cream.”

“Well, I thought you could use a break from me shoving a new flavor down your throat every week,” she said readily. She fiddled with her nails. “And I know how much you like yogurt with blueberries. I actually asked Alex to start selling them in the shop— she said yes.”

“What?” Lena blinked owlishly at that. “Why?”

Kara could only shrug at that. “Well, when Lena Luthor likes something, then it’s good business to provide it.” _ And I want you in here more often. One day you’re going to get sick of mint chocolate ice cream and I just want you to come back here, more often if you can. _

“So you’ll sell kale?” Lena said with mirth in her eyes.

Kara wrinkled her nose and backed up her head. “Nevermind then.”

* * *

The week after that was served with Oreo ice cream, a classic flavor that had both children and tasteful adults climbing for whenever they announced that it was the flavor of the week.

Obviously Kara had to give some to Lena on their weekly ice cream adventure. 

Sure, they went out to extravagant dinners on days that weren’t Wednesdays. And yeah, they saw each other so often that it felt weird to have no communication with each other for more than an hour. But seeing Lena every week in her workplace was absolutely riveting, especially whenever she made _ that _face when she ate the new ice cream flavor Kara set out in front of her.

It turned out that Lena’s new favorite flavor was Oreo. Kara took all the credit for that one, and extended the Oreo ice cream sundae blast sale for one more week. You know, just because.

Now Kara was sitting across from Lena in their usual spot, elbows on the table and hands squishing her face as she expectantly looked at Lena. 

Lena squinted at the vibrant purple in front of her. She spooned it then looked up at Kara. “I didn’t think it was possible for any kind of ice cream to be this purple.”

Kara laughed. She pointed at the said ice cream, then explained, “It’s ube.”

“I could tell you the basis of astrophysics and how to create rocket fuel from vinegar and a rope, but I hope you know that ice cream flavors are completely lost on me,” she said in exasperation. The quirk of her lips betrayed her enjoyment, and Kara beamed.

“It’s purple yam,” she continued, taking her own spoon to take out a chunk from their shared bowl, “imagine that it tastes like an amalgamation of vanilla and pistachio. Winn and I had a phase where we tried a new flavor every week to add it to the menu, and this was one of our runner ups.”

Lena hummed. She took a quick scoop of ice cream and tasted it, her eyes lighting up in the telltale sign way of hers that showed her satisfaction. “Kara, I love you,” she groaned, and suddenly Kara’s heart stopped beating in her chest, “it’s like you can read my mind! What flavor is this? Number seven? Eight?”

“Eight,” Kara said proudly, and she exhaled slowly to force her heart to keep beating. She took a nimble bite of the ice cream to act natural, though she couldn’t taste anything even after she swallowed the rest. 

“Eight ice cream flavors,” Lena mused. Then she pointed her spoon at Kara. “Well, technically seven and some yogurt.”

“You’re not complaining,” she teased.

Lena rolled her eyes, but she laughed when Kara made a face at her. “You told me you wanted me to try Supergirl in the end. When are you planning to finally let me try it?”

Kara smiled at her. She hoped her smile would deter Lena from the way her stomach dropped, the sweetness in her tongue replaced by something more bitter. She hoped for so long that Lena had forgotten about the reason behind their ice cream dates, but it was an unachievable desire from the very beginning.

She loved seeing Lena’s face whenever she ate something new and covered in sugar, something so different from her strict lunches and orders from a dietitian. Whenever she threw her head back to laugh, Kara would get a face full of moles on her neck— she bet that if she connected them, she’d see something almost like a constellation. The intimacy of sharing ice cream and Kara being forced to gruel over one flavor or the other was _ exhilarating; _going out and sharing goodnight phone calls warmed her heart, but something about doing this every week made her feel alive. 

And she suspected, obviously, that it was because Lena somehow brought her walls further down whenever she walked through the jingling door. Tight dresses and steamed blouses seemed to make her subconsciously hold her chin high, but being with Kara on table eight made her laugh more loudly. 

If there was anything that Kara loved seeing more on this Earth than seeing a perfectly swirled ice cream cone, it was Lena’s lopsided smile.

“I, um…” She cleared her throat, tapping her fingers on the table. Lena watched her, face inscrutable but a friendly demeanor to her eyes. “Next week,” she blurted out, and Lena’s eyebrows went up, “I was actually planning to give it to you next week! The biggest taco waffle I could bake, plus the biggest piece of chocolate I could find to top it off—”

“And I'm thinking you’ll be the one responsible with eating the rest if I don’t like it?” Lena said with a laugh. 

Kara smiled guiltily.

A tease and some giggling later (plus some reprimanding from Alex nearby about not disturbing other customers), they continued on with their conversation, purple ice cream between them.

Eventually Lena had to go a bit sooner than they both liked it to. With a promise of a make-up brunch date somewhere that week, they hugged and picked up their things. 

But before Lena could make her way out of the door to the waiting driver standing beside her black car, she said, “Do you remember the hoodie you gave me a couple weeks ago?”

“The blue one?” Kara asked absently, because she was busy wiping down their sticky table.

“When I miss you and I haven’t seen you in a while, I sleep with it on.”

Her heart leapt into her throat. She paused her wiping for a second and started again, hoping that Lena didn’t notice the sudden sparkle in her eyes. She looked up to meet Lena’s look, smiling as evenly as possible. “So you mean five seconds after we’ve seen each other?” she joked, because there was no way she could say anything else without her voice wobbling.

When Lena laughed, it sounded more stippled than it usually was. There was a seriousness to her tone then, her face suddenly deadset like it was on TV when she gave press conferences to the public. So Kara straightened up, regarding Lena with a semblance of concern, and before she could say anything, Lena answered it for her.

“I really like spending time with you, Kara,” she said truthfully. She clasped her hands together in front of her, and the way she carried herself seemed almost regal to Kara. And strange. Once it finally hit her, Kara was a bit dumbfounded. 

She was nervous.

“I was wondering if we could do this again,” Lena said, and she smiled at Kara like she usually did before they parted. Yet it seemed strainer than usual, tensed and bruised. “But… on other terms.”

“Other terms?” She scrunched her brow in confusion.

“Yeah,” Lena confirmed, and her own voice was starting to sound strained as well. “You know, um— as in… what we have now.”

“Lena, are you okay?” Kara asked, because she was starting to get genuinely concerned. Lena was a pale person in contrast to everyone around them, but her skin was somehow turning a noticeable whiter tone. “Do you wanna sit down? I can get you some water—” 

“I’m fine,” Lena said offhandedly, and she cleared her throat into a hand. She straightened herself up again and her composure was back, and she tried another smile. It reached her eyes this time. “I mean it, Kara, I’m fine. I have to go. But I’ve just been wondering, do you maybe want to go on—?”

“Kara!” Alex called out behind them.

  
Kara pivoted her body on a heel. “What’s up?” she called, because Alex’s voice carried all the way to the back. 

“Can you come help me with something?”

She turned back around to face Lena with an apologetic smile. Her friend’s shoulders were sagged in clear disappointment, and there was something in her eyes that told Kara that something was wrong. 

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Kara asked her, chewing on her lower lip. “I don’t care if Alex gets mad. You’re more important.”

“Work comes first, Kara,” Lena said, and her tone was genuine. She took a gentle hold on Kara’s wrist and squeezed it, and the subtle gesture was enough for Kara’s heart to flutter restlessly at her chest. “It’s nothing, I promise. Same time next week?”

“For the grand finale,” Kara promised.

With a smile, Lena was out of the door. The ghost of her fingertips warmed Kara’s wrist.

She went to the back of the shop in a huff. “What is it?” she asked, doing the bare minimum to keep the irritation out of her voice. 

Alex was holding up a box, grunting with the effort as she held it up. She was clearly straining to even hold it, and she wheezed out, “New shipment. Help me carry it.”

In an instant, with her slight annoyance fading away, Kara jogged over to help her sister out. She carried it with ease, walking backwards and dropping it gently to where Alex pointed. It turned out to be a shipment of chocolate mint ice cream, and Kara bit down on her tongue from pointing out that _ hey, it’s Lena’s favorite. _

“Sorry if I interrupted your date,” Alex said, sincerity oozing into her voice. She put her hands on her lower back and bent backwards, giving her back a satisfying crack. Kara tried not to wince at the noise.

“One, we’re not on a date-date, and two—” 

_ “Still?” _ Alex sounded as if Kara announced that she got someone pregnant. “You’re going to be fifty and a wrinkly widow by the time you ask her out.”

“Or I never do and I’ll keep my best friend status with her forever close to my heart,” Kara rebutted.

Alex’s eyes rolled up to the sky. When she looked back at Kara, she looked halfway between pissed and exasperated. “Kara, I love you and I support you,” she started, and Kara crossed her arms to get ready for a lecture, “but you look at her like she’s melting ice cream. And we both know how fast you eat melted ice cream.” She shivered at her own innuendo. “I swear to god if you don’t—”

“Okay! _ Okay!” _ Kara threw her arms up in the air. “Jeez! Everyone’s been telling me to go for it since she _ got _here. I get it, okay? Just— help me find a way to ask her out without me breaking a bunch of things.”

Alex seemed pleasantly surprised, her eyebrows raised up close to her hairline and her head tilted slightly to the side. “I had a whole speech prepared to convince you, but whatever works, I guess.” She shrugged and leaned on the counter. “There’s nothing wrong with texting her about it. Or calling her. At least that way you could scream into your pillow and let it all out.”

Kara groaned. She strolled over to the cheap metal chair that they set out in the back room for short breaks and sat down, the back of it in front of her. She swung her forearms over the rounded top of the chair and propped her chin, eyes looking up at her sister. “I really like her,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. She dropped her eyes to the ground, not before seeing Alex’s softened look. “I just don’t want to mess this up.”

“With her? I don’t think it’s even statistically possible,” Alex said. She was silent for a while, then added, “You know, I’ve never seen you look so in love with someone before.”

She looked up at Alex with a knitted brow. “I’m not in love with her,” she said weakly, and it sounded like she was just trying to convince herself. “At least I don’t think so?”

Alex guffawed at her attempt to dismiss her feelings. She grabbed an unopened soda can from her side and tossed it to Kara, who caught it with a hand. It was still cold, as if it’s only been out in the open for an hour at most. Before she could ask, Alex said, “I brought in here with me to drink, but I think you need it more than I do.”

“Thanks,” she muttered, and cracked open the lid. With the bubbly liquid coming down her throat, Alex finally continued.

“I think you should look in the break room next door.”

Confused, Kara lowered the soda from her lips. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and got up from her chair when Alex beckoned her. Without another word, she followed Alex to the other room, where they usually hung out during lunch and the scarce breaks of their own.

A retro sofa sat sadly in the corner, facing a TV. There were two tables and some chairs, both looking only half as comfortable as the ones outside for the customers. There was a whiteboard on wheels close to the couch, turned over to face its brown underside.

Alex made her way over to it. Before Kara could even twitch a finger, she turned it over.

There were eight flavors written in blue marker. She didn’t have to squint to know they were the flavors that Kara gave to Lena, written down in order. The sixth one had some arrows pointing to it, with cursive writing asking, _“Frozen? Fou? I love… fou?” _

The blocky writing beside it wrote underneath, _“No, YOGURT, not frozen yogurt you dumbass.”_

Irish cream, lemon, orange, vanilla, espresso fudge, yogurt, Oreo, and ube— in that very order.

The first letter of each flavor was circled, underlined, and bolded. 

It said _ I love you. _

Speechless and mind reeling with a thousand thoughts, Kara pushed her fingertips on the whiteboard. It tipped slightly underneath her hand.

“You know the funny thing is,” Alex said with a little laugh, turning the board back over, “there’s no doubt in this world that she loves you too.”

Kara was silent for a long time. She could hear Alex calling out her name, but her head felt like it was submerged under fifty feet of water. All she could think about that this had to be a crazy coincidence, that her friends were crazy conspiracy theorists that had too much time on their hands. She chose the flavors because she thought they were things Lena would love, not because she loved Lena.

But she always regarded choosing those flavors before Wednesday mornings as something vital and important, something that always stuck to her mind like gum underneath the table throughout the week. Even when she was asleep. 

She swallowed the lump in her throat and looked up at Alex. Her sister had her arms crossed, brows up while she waited for Kara to say something. Outside, somebody came into the store with a tinkle of the door, and Nia’s voice greeted them, announcing that they just had a fresh batch of mint chocolate ice cream come this morning if they were interested. 

“I think I know what to do.”

* * *

She scraped out a nice ball of ice cream from the tub in front of her. Her arm felt stiff once she held it out for the little boy over the rounded glass, who took it with a bright smile and bouncing heels. 

His eyes went over to the tub beside the one Kara was scooping for him, and he squinted at it. He pressed his small hands on the glass, leaving whitish marks when his mother tugged him by his shirt. 

Kara smiled to herself and waved as he went away. Another person took his place, a much older woman with an overcoat and a phone pressed to her ear. She ordered three scoops of chocolate ice cream to go, and Kara dunked her scooper in the built-in dent in the counter that housed warm water. 

When she handed the woman a plastic cup and lid with her order, she mirrored the little boy from before. She squinted at the tub of ice cream closest to edge, reading silently to herself, eyebrows going further up as she did. When she composed herself again, there was a smile on her lips. 

The next person was a man in a polo shirt, a dad whose three little girls monkeyed around him, tugging on his jeans and shirt and pointing at the ice cream set out before them. He ordered four bowls of varying flavors, and Kara fanned out her right arm to get to work.

While she scooped the dad’s second bowl, he leaned into the glass and brought his sunglasses up to look. He plastered on a grin and rallied her girls over, pointing to the same tub of ice cream that the boy and the woman were looking at it with a jolly laugh. 

“If someone doesn’t do something like that for you, they’re not the one,” he declared, and the two eldest girls giggled to themselves, gossiping and “ooh”ing. The youngest, who seemed to be around four years old, whined about not being able to read. 

The tallest sister poked her and said, “You’ll get it when you’re older.”

Kara chuckled to herself, sending the family off with their bowls to meet up with Winn, who waved them over with a friendly smile. He caught Kara’s smile and flashed her a thumbs up, mouthing something to her that she couldn’t quite get.

It was two p.m. on the dot when a dark-haired CEO finally turned up on the doorstep, literally. The glass door jingled for what seemed like the millionth time that day, and Kara looked up to check. And when Lena strolled in, all smiles and easy looks, Kara’s jolly mood cranked up to a thousand. But so did the butterflies in her stomach, which laid stationary in her gut until she caught Lena’s brilliant eyes.

Kara waved her over. When Lena was finally close by, she said, “Today’s the day, Lena! Are you late 'cause you’re nervous?” _ Because I definitely am, and it’s not because of the ice cream. _

Instead of a friendly jab directed her way, Lena stared back at her blankly. Her hands were in her coat’s pockets. “You lied to me, Kara.”

Kara’s smile washed away in a worried frown. “What?”

“You lied to me,” Lena repeated. Her voice was a little cold. “How could you do that?”

Now Kara was shifting her weight from foot to foot, not understanding the situation. “I never lied to you. What are you talking about?” she asked, brow tightly knitted and hands falling from her waist. 

They stared at each other for a long time. Then Lena split into a smile, and Kara’s confusion grew. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it,” she said, her voice light with her usual friendliness, “I was just messing with you.”

“I got that,” Kara said with a huff, and Lena laughed. “What did I ever do to you?” she grumbled, and pressed her palms on the counter. It was something she subconsciously knew— that they drifted closer together whenever they had the chance.

“You never told me you _ invented _Supergirl ice cream!” she exclaimed, feigning hurt by putting her hand over her chest. “Now trying it is going to put pressure on this friendship.”

“Okay, but it never got brought up, in my defense,” Kara argued, and she held up a finger, “so I never lied to you. And secondly, even if you think it tastes like Winn’s footbath water, I promise there will be no hard feelings.” She paused, then rethought her answer. “After a while,” she added. 

Lena chuckled at that. “So? Where’s the ‘ichor of the gods’?” she said, quoting one of many Kara’s raving texts about Supergirl ice cream. Her lips were up in an easy-going smile.

Suddenly, Kara felt nervous. She knew she couldn’t just reach over and take away the thing she put out inside the glass, because Lena would see it before she could even twitch a finger close to cover it. It was only a matter of time before Lena would look down, and she’d discover the only secret Kara’s been hiding from her. 

So she sucked in a breath and nodded vigorously, excited for Lena’s reaction in the very least. “I’ll be right back,” she announced, and sped to the back. There was already Supergirl ice cream out in the front, but that was… tainted, kind of. And Lena’s order of a gigantic waffle taco with a hand-sized chocolate bar on top was one of a kind. 

When she got back to Lena, her anxiety riding high despite Alex’s pep talks, Lena smiled innocently back at her. Her eyes never dipped below Kara’s face, and Kara tried not to twist her face into a frustrated look.

She plopped the ice cream on top of the glass, grinning at Lena. “What do you think of this bad boy?” she said proudly. “I was making it all morning.”

“Can you finish that?” Lena said in disbelief. “I know you eat a lot but that’s… excessive, to say the least.”

“Yup!” Kara said, popping the word. “But the question is: can you eat it yourself?”

Lena narrowed her eyes. “If I get to share it with you, sure,” she purred, and Kara tried not to think about how sultry she sounded. “You'd eat ninety-nine percent of it regardless of how much I liked the ice cream.”

“You win some, you lose some,” Kara deadpanned. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

“But what if I love the player?” Lena challenged, and Kara grinned.

“And then you should kiss her on the cheek for spending two hours trying not to make the waffle maker explode.”

“My hero,” Lena crooned. Kara laughed with her, and slid the giant thing closer to Lena’s side for her to take. All of her anxious thoughts and primary goal disappeared with Lena’s joyful laugh.

“Could you imagine if we did that thing in Lady and the Tramp, but with ice cream?” she asked thoughtfully, and Lena gave her a confused tilt of the head. “Hear me out. We don’t have anything stringy, but we do have a waffle taco to munch on. So you could take one end, and I’ll take the other, and we could meet in the middle and—” She stopped then. Because she was blabbing what was on her mind, and she didn’t think about the implications of it. 

Her face felt hot to the touch. She stammered to change the subject, but Lena cut her off with a lazy wave of the hand, seeming at ease and much too amused at Kara’s embarrassed face. “We would have ice cream all over our faces,” she said, eyebrows tilted upwards, “red, blue, and yellow ice cream actually. We’d look like we just got caught making out in an art studio with paint on our faces.”

“That is _ way _too specific,” Kara said, relaxing under Lena’s look. She laughed when Lena reddened. “Did you actually make out with someone in an art studio? Lena!” 

“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” Lena argued. “You look innocent but I know you better. I wouldn’t even be surprised if I find out you—”

“Hey, come on, don’t drag my name,” she said with a frown. “I thought we had a truce.”

“Which you broke when you—” Lena started to retort, but she was cut off with a heavy sigh. 

“Oh my _ GOD, _can you just LOOK down?” 

Surprised, both Kara and Lena whipped their heads for the source of the voice. It was either Nia or Alex, and both were possible suspects after they both clearly ducked their heads in the split second it took for Kara to see them. They both busied themselves with cleaning ice cream bowls in the kitchen behind her, Alex whistling a merry tune and Nia humming a song.

When Kara turned back around to apologize to Lena, she was appalled to realize that she was, in fact, looking down. Gawking directly at the showcase in the glass. 

The aforementioned Supergirl ice cream looked different from its usual self. Instead of its primary colors of red, blue, and yellow, it mixed in with something darker. It looked like veins, protruding from the swirls of the bright colors. It was black licorice flavored ice cream, mixed with National City’s gem. A one week special, a flavor that surprisingly spiked ice cream sales since the discovery of Supergirl.

Sure, black licorice was a controversy favorite, but there was something about its biting flavor fused with Supergirl’s that appealed to people. 

Alex called her theatrical for the gesture. But Kara argued that it was a perfect metaphor, and one that would help reign in sales (and that _ clearly _coerced Alex into allowing it). They also sold a separate batch, pure black with dimpled green (m&ms, Lena’s top pick), called Luthor ice cream. It rivaled Supergirl for fan favorite, and it was only the afternoon.

The one that took the biggest space in the glassed freezer was called Supercorp ice cream, and the monogrammed label that presented the dessert had a line that stated that no, it wasn’t closely associated with L-Corp, the licensed brand, but it hoped to be.

Above that, in printed handwriting, much different from the clean font of the name and description, Kara had written, _ “Lena Luthor, do you maybe want to go on a date with me?” _ And below that, just to reiterate the point, she wrote, _ “From, Kara Danvers” _.

Lena blinked. She blinked a second time. Her eyes were a little glossy, and Kara bit down on her lower lip, hard. “Did you really have to add your name to it?” she choked out, and the pit in Kara’s stomach dropped.

“I didn’t want you to think it was from Winn or something,” she said, voice much quieter than she liked it to be.

“I could read your writing from under a microscope or from fifty miles away, and I promise, I’d know _ instantly _that it was yours,” Lena said, her voice still wobbly. She blinked again.

Kara’s anxiety rode high. She fiddled with her nails in front of her, loosening her teeth’s grip on her lip to make sure she didn’t draw blood. “I didn’t know if you liked licorice or not and I already ordered a bunch of it before I could ask you,” she blurted out. “But it kinda makes sense. Right? Supergirl tastes like a kid’s sugar dream and licorice isn’t very, uh— you know. But I like it. And it tastes really good together. Like us— I mean—! We’re good together, at least I think so. What I’m saying is… um…” 

She lost her train of thought when Lena wiped her eyes with her hands, sniffling to herself. She stepped away from the counter to shoulder herself out of there and beside Lena, who was currently sniffling and trying not to cry in a shop full of people. “I’m so so sorry, I didn’t think you’d react like that,” she said hurriedly. “I can take it off the shelves. I’m sorry, I’m so—”

“You could’ve just asked me out like a normal person,” Lena said, seeming solemn. She looked up with Kara, who had her hands on both of Lena’s arms, and she gurgled out a bubbly laugh. “You’re so… _ Kara. _ This is the most _ you _thing you’ve ever done and I love you so much for it.”

“You love me?” Kara repeated, and the words itself felt like rolling dough in her mouth. They were words she stuffed so far back in her throat that blurting them out felt like letting a bird free. And then she laughed, relieved at first, until she couldn’t stop laughing just _ because _she could. “We haven’t even gone out on a date and you're telling me you love me!”

“We could always change that.” Lena’s smile was so soft and tender that Kara could feel her legs turning into mush underneath her. It was always the same smile she gave Kara, and it’s never changed— the fact she never saw it made her want to hit her head against the wall.

Kara’s hands slipped away from Lena’s arms. Lena finally stopped sniffling, and her eyes were only a little puffy. She felt another laugh bubble into her throat. Instead, she rested her forehead against Lena’s, and breathed in deeply, not caring how shaky it felt. 

Lena was the one who found her hands. She held them tight, and they were so cold from staying outside, and Kara’s were just as frigid from sticking them in freezers all day. But Kara’s chest never felt warmer, and the warmth only spread throughout her body when Lena whispered close to her lips, eyes twinkling brightly with the color of vines underneath a yellow sun.

“Maybe I do want to go on a date with you,” she said softly. “And maybe I want to do it right now.”

Alex only waved them off when Kara bounded over to her to spread the news. Nia hugged her tightly before she left, and Brainy smiled at her over her shoulder. They helped cover her shift, and Kara made a mental note to buy them a dozen cupcakes for the next day. 

Two shared milkshakes and ice cream melting kisses on the corners of chilly streets later, Kara went home with a heart that could carry twelve dozen boxes of gelato. 

It turned out that Lena didn’t like Supergirl ice cream, and she made a face as she smacked her lips after taking the spoon out of her mouth. She shook her head vigorously, pushing the dessert away from her like a kid being presented broccoli, and Kara could only laugh. 

“I don’t like Supergirl, but that doesn’t mean I love you any less,” she murmured that night, and pulled Kara for a kiss that could only be described by blowing up milkshakes and flamethrowing waffle cones. 

On the night of their anniversary, Kara had her head on Lena’s folded lap, and fingers carded through her hair distractedly as Lena looked at their ice cream shop’s figures. 

“For the twelfth month in a row, the best-selling ice cream in National City is ours,” she mused, and her fingers stopped in Kara’s hair long enough for her to plant a loving kiss on her forehead. “Supergirl is a close second and Luthor’s right behind it.”

Kara laughed and dragged her down with an arm swung over her neck, propelling her downwards for a well-suited kiss on the lips. Lena’s lips were cold from the air conditioning, and she felt as if it was her job to heat them up. 

“See? National City agrees,” she said with a hum. “We were mint to be.”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [Tumblr](https://cosmiccaptain.tumblr.com/) (@cosmiccaptain) and my new [Twitter](https://twitter.com/cosmicpandas?s=17) (@cosmicpandas)!! I got a twitter just for sg and also because I don’t want my friends seeing me freak out over katie's neck mole so anyway. Come talk to me on either of those two if you'd like, I'm in desperate need of talking about supercorp !!


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